Knife killer 'was provoked'

Birrell stabbed his friend under provocation

A man who stabbed his friend to death after being hit five times on the head with a meat cleaver has been jailed for 30 months at the High Court in Glasgow.

Judge Sir Gerald Gordon accepted that Derek Birrell, 24, had been provoked.

Birrell, from Castlemilk, Glasgow, killed his friend John Beattie, 35, by stabbing him on 20 March last year.

He had originally been charged with murder, but the Crown accepted his plea of guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

Sir Gerald ordered that Birrell be supervised for 12 months when released.

Fatal stab wound

Birrell, of Mitchellhill Road, Castlemilk, Glasgow, admitted killing Mr Beattie, also of Castlemilk.

The high court heard that Beattie had a stormy relationship with his girlfriend, Leanne Waugh.

She tracked Mr Beattie down to a house in Castlemilk after he allegedly stole £20 from her purse.

Miss Waugh took Birrell with her to the house as she tried to recover the cash.

But a fight broke out between Miss Waugh and a woman who answered the door.

Then the men began to fight and Birrell delivered the fatal stab wound after Mr Beattie repeatedly hit him with the meat cleaver, the court heard.

A single stab wound sliced through a rib, went through a lung and pierced Mr Beattie's heart. He died within minutes.